Australian Ross Langdon and pregnant partner Elif Yavuz were killed in the Kenyan mall attacks. They are being remembered as generous and unique.

Australian architect Ross Langdon died in the Kenyan mall attack. Picture: FacebookSource: Supplied

THEY were global citizens with a passion for humanity but Australian architect Ross Langdon and his pregnant partner Elif Yavuz were cut down by hate-filled militants as they prepared to welcome their first child into the world.

The death of Tasmanian architecture "gun" and his Harvard-educated Dutch partner Elif Yavuz just a fortnight before their child's due date has left a gaping hole for family struggling to come to terms with the sudden and cruel loss.

Mr Langdon's mother Linden said the pain of discovering her son's entire young family were among the 68 killed in the terror attack was excruciating.

"We have lost my beautiful son Ross Langdon, his lovely partner Elif Yavuz and their much loved baby just two weeks away from birth," Ms Langdon wrote on her son's Facebook page.

"The loss is immeasurable, absurd and excruciating."

Friends from his rural Tasmanian home and those he worked with in Sydney as he built himself an international reputation at co-founded firm Regional Associates have spoken of a constantly positive couple - who were in their early 30s, with an even brighter future ahead.

Friend and Tasmanian artist Peter Adams said he had been doing "wondrous things" in the world, including designing, pro bono, an AIDS hospital in Kenya and designing and supervising a Ugandan ecovillage employing only local labour.

Ross Langdon. Picture: SuppliedSource: Supplied

The dual Australian-British citizen was also working on projects in London, Sydney, Norway, Uganda and Rwanda.

And Mr Langdon was about to start work on a $35 million museum centred around the earliest fossil records of humanoids walking: two adults and a child.

"Ironic, because equally tragic is that his partner Elif Yavuz and their unborn child were also killed in the massacre," Mr Adams said.

He said Ms Yavuz had recently completed a PhD at Harvard and was working with the Gates foundation in Kenya, where she had met former US president Bill Clinton just last month.

His passion was unique buildings inspired by indigenous cultures and made with local materials - including earth and stones, Mr Marshall said.

"He's somebody that liked new horizons and was enthusiastic and when an opportunity presented itself he'd make the most of it," he said.

"He just loved life and loved what he did."

A spokesman at the Department at Foreign Affairs and Trade said the family would have the support of the Australian Government through their ordeal.

Kenyan authorities continued to try to end the two-day long stand-off with al-Shabaab terrorists at the Westgate shopping centre on Monday night, promising they would prevail, as explosions could be heard from the street outside.

Nine bodies were recovered as an unknown number of hostages remained inside.